The young girl’s eyes bulged out of their sockets looking all around the store. Her head was on swivel looking right, then left, and then back again. She let out a huge smile. She couldn’t believe her good fortune.
When she saw that the bookstore had a second floor, her smile stretched even further and she became downright giddy. She yelled to her mother and father to catch up. “C’mon, c’mon, let’s go,” she said, jumping without hesitation onto the escalator to the second floor.
Her parents looked at each other and both let out a sigh. They looked like they had seen this scene play out before and had resigned themselves to playing catch-up.
As the girl led her parents around the store, I took a sip of my coffee and let out a little chuckle. My wife and I have lived this scene in our own lives with all three of our kids, but especially our oldest, our daughter.
She loved reading. She loved bookstores that went on for aisle after aisle. Oh, she loved libraries too. Library or store, it didn’t matter, just wherever she could find a steady stream of books that kept her interest and let her dream. She could get lost in a bookstore for hours, never needing to come up air or to be entertained.
The memory made chuckle some more. Oh to be young and to love the written word.
I spotted the girl one more time before I left the store and got on with the rest of our weekend. Like my daughter countless times over the years, the girl had a huge book in each hand and looked to be debating the merits of each with her mother. She looked to be considering which one to keep, and which one to put back on the book shelf for another time.
Oh, yes, I’ve definitely been there.
Writing from the Heart with Brian 
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